Hello, Sweetwater Camera Club members, visitors and friends . . .

I would like to thank the GREAT team of Sweetwater Camera Club members who came to the Cultural Arts Center here in Douglasville last Thursday evening to help with the art reception for Robbie Pope and Joy Peters. Laura Lieberman, executive director of the CAC was quite impressed with the teamwork shown by our volunteers!

Well-deserved praises go to Diane Yancey, chairperson of our Welcoming/Social Committee who coordinated this event and purchased much of the refreshments, to our other extreme shoppers Larry Hunter and Gene Spicer-- for our kitchen help and event hosting performed by Peggy Haines, John Fuller, Mary Lesh and Susan Morris; thanks to Linda Britt for being the beverage queen and to Norma Nichols for purchasing and helping Laura with the flowers. This was an extraordinary evening and we greatly appreciate all of our volunteers for helping to make it such a special event. If you haven’t had the chance to get to the Cultural Arts Center to see the current show of some great fine art, please check out www.artsdouglas.org for details.

When you go to an art show at the CAC, pay special attention to the care that has been given to the placement and juxtaposition of all the objets d’art. Laura Lieberman with the aid of Linda Britt and others, is very much responsible for the aesthetics of what you see there, the location and order of the pieces displayed.

Special Links: Photographer Michael Toles would like for everyone to discover a major source of photographic education through DVD tutorials available for purchase on the web at http://fansof.photovisionvideo.com/Michael/052421 and at http://www.photovisionvideo.com.      

This Thursday evening, September 9^th at 7:00 p.m. the Sweetwater Camera Club will hold its monthly meeting at St. Julian’s Episcopal Church in the Parish Hall. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.

Our speaker this month is Beth Lilly, who will be giving a presentation of some of her fine art photography. You may see some of Beth’s work at http://www.bethlilly.com . Beth says that she has been teaching photography for several years and is looking forward to showing and discussing her work as well as critiquing and judging our contest.

This Month’s Contests: Landscape photography: A wide range of photography in which areas of space in the world are featured. It can feature nature, strongly defined land forms, urban areas, and bodies of water. (By the way, if you missed our field trip to the Etowah Indian Mounds near Cartersville Georgia, you missed one of the best field trips of the year -- fascinating lush landscapes-- and the weather was beautiful ).

You can find out more about the contest rules on the web at http://www.sweetwatercameraclub.org/contests . The rules state that you may enter two photos each in the color, monochrome and field trip categories.

This month’s upcoming field trip: We were planning upon attending September Saturdays, a Douglas County festival held at the Douglas County Courthouse parking area. Admission is free. The dates are Saturday, September 18^th (Heroes Day + Touch-A-Truck Experience) and Saturday, September 25^th (Family Day + Car and Motorcycle Show). The time is flexible—go make some pictures at your leisure. The show goes from 12 noon to 6:30 each of those days.

For the past two or three years the Sweetwater Camera Club and Digital Image Group have had a community outreach booth at these events to educate the public about our club missions and to collect mailing list emails from interested people. If anyone is interested in helping us by manning the booth this year, please contact me by replying to this email. Thank you!

You do not have to be a member of the SCC to attend one of our field trips or to come to our meetings, but you must be a member in order to enter any of our photo contests.

Douglasville Celebrates Photography: SLIGHT CHANGE IN REQUIREMENTS—Please read carefully—

During the month of October, the SCC will have its own show which will be hosted by a different group. Our show will have its opening on Thursday evening, October 7^th from 6 to 8 p.m. I haven’t verified this, but I believe we will be delivering our pictures to the Cultural Arts Center on or before Sunday, October 3^rd. This year the show will feature the winning photos from our monthly contests over the past two years. This includes pictures that have won an Honorable Mention award as well as 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd place in any category.

In addition, because we want everyone to have the opportunity to participate, we also want those of you who either haven’t won a contest or who would like to display your photos (regardless of the contest) to submit your work. These will be “Featured Member Photos.” The main reason we chose “contest winners” as the theme was to motivate those who already have work they have printed and matted to take one more step and frame the pictures for the show to insure the success of the show. However, we greatly encourage you to SHOW YOUR WORK regardless of whether you have won any awards for it. Become a Featured Member!

There is not a limit on the number of framed works you may submit. However, should we have more submissions that there is wall space, other considerations will come into play. We need at least 56 photos to make the show a success. This does not mean that you are responsible for matting and framing every single entry you have won an award for (in case you have won many) —what we need is for you to matte and frame some of your winning entries or favorites and submit them. You will be asked to state a price you would like to sell your work for, should someone fall in love with one or more of your pictures. We will distribute the paperwork and provide more information as the time for the display comes nearer. Keep in mind when you consider pricing that the CAC retains 25% of the sale price so price them accordingly.

Please note: The only other stipulation is that your work should not have been shown before at the CAC, so if you provided a work last year for that show, it should not be re-presented at this year’s Douglasville Celebrates Photography Exhibit.

North Georgia Camera Club Shootout: Are you ready for some real fun? We now have 8 people who are forming a team to attend the Saturday, October 23^rd NG3C Shootout in Rome, Georgia at Berry College. If you are interested in participating, don’t be shy. We aren’t looking for superstars, we are looking for participants with a rabid interest in photography. Only through teamwork and participation will any of us become superstars.

Thus far we have the following people who have indicated that they will participate: Jan and Erik Peterson, Jim Klinger, Mary Lesh, Michael Toles, Jane Cupp, Sandra Belk, and possibly our newest renewing member Judy Bruner. Richard Nichols and Norma Nichols will go along as facilitators. Don’t be left out. Include yourself! We need several more on our team so if you can spare the time and have an inclination to compete and learn, please come join us. This is not just for accomplished photographers, it is for any member of the Sweetwater Camera Club who can attend both a dress rehearsal a week or two before the event and then participate in the event itself.

Norma and I have finished creating the website for the North Georgia Camera Club Council located at http://www.ng3c.org . This is a photography Super Sport! Please go to the website and read what is going on with the 13 clubs who are participating. If you will take your talents and camera and go to Berry College in October, we will all share an adrenaline filled day and get to meet hundreds of other photo enthusiasts.

The Sweetwater Camera Club will pay the $300 entry fee if we get at least 10 people to participate as shooters-- . Again, it will require a dress rehearsal within two weeks before we compete for the real deal. We know that some people will not be able to make a dress rehearsal but we need the majority of team members to.

Think about it – many of you are very good and if you look at the galleries we have placed on the website you will see who the winners were the past two years. Why don’t we go for it? Norma and I believe in it—it is a MAJOR step up from the contests you have been participating in at the SCC. I need to know as soon as possible so we can finish the paperwork, send in the money and get on with creating our team.

As always, the best way to become an excellent photographer is to study, share your passion, look at what others do, and most of all, get outside and make pictures. Come see us this Thursday evening and expand your horizons! (That was a not-so-subtle landscape joke).

See you at the Sweetwater Camera Club meeting! http://www.sweetwatercameraclub.org .

For those of you who would like to join, the fee from now through December is $10 for an individual membership and $20 per family. You may join on-line at http://www.SweetwaterCameraClub.org/membership .

Richard